This collection is the fourth book of poems and poems by Alexander Galich, published by the Posev publishing house. The collection brought together everything previously published, as well as new poems written by Galich shortly before his death. The thin book is the result, the meaning, the essence of the poet’s entire life. “And here it is, this book, not in the future, in this century!” But what a capacious book this is! It contains the entire fate of our “generation of the doomed,” our pain and anger, hope and despair, evil irony and triumphant laughter, our joy of spiritual emancipation.

A real poet does not need to be explained, he must be listened to. Read and listen. So, dear reader, let’s quickly look through all the introductions, all the statements about Galich, and to the Poet himself. And, reading Galich, let us remember his voice - a well-trained voice of an artist (after all, Stanislavsky's studio!), in recent years a little dull, but not losing its expressiveness and charm. After all, we all heard Galich. Some - in a cramped Moscow feast, others - in semi-legal domestic audiences in Novosibirsk and Dubna, St. Petersburg and Obninsk, and others in spacious foreign halls in Paris and New York, London and Tel Aviv, always packed to capacity. And, of course, from cassettes, records, tapes. Let's remember his intonations, accents, pauses. Let's listen. We will hear.

Alexander Yugov